


Huh.

by Space_Daemon



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Chloe and Michael are the kind of friends that have zero boundaries, Fluff, Multi, SQUIP Squad friendship, and love each other unconditionally, chloe likes anime, everybody’s friends, lil bit of pining, michael and chloe are bffs, roast each other constantly, she’s a big ol nerd
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-20 19:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16143491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Space_Daemon/pseuds/Space_Daemon
Summary: Set over one weekend.After the SQUIPcident, Chloe and Michael are weirdly kind of best friends. With their other friends out of town, the pair hang out for a couple days. During this time, Chloe realises something about her and Brooke.





	1. ‘Sup, motherfucker

**Author's Note:**

> I love Chloe Valentine, and I wanted to write a Pinkberry fic focused on her. It kinda spiralled into also focusing on Michael, so have fun!

Chloe sat on her bed, legs crossed and eyes fixed on the screen before her. Right now, the apricot walls around her could fall away and she could be catapulted into the abyss, and she would barely glance away. This was the most important thing in her whole life, and nothing could drag her away from it.

On her laptop display, two characters could be seen, wholeheartedly kicking the shit out of each other. Chloe cheered on the girl who was currently winning the battle, trying not to cry as she went flying. The hours she spent watching this were one of her innermost secrets - one that would ruin her if it ever got out. She could imagine Mell’s face if he discovered it, and that smirk would just be too much to handle.

Chloe’s secret was that she loved anime.

Specifically, anything where girls kicked ass, took names, and looked damn good doing it. It was something she had adored since she was maybe ten, being sparked by a love of Pokemon and spiralling spectacularly. She would never buy any merchandise, for fear of public humiliation, but she was madly in love with the genre and it could easily consume her thoughts for a couple of days, leaving her noticeably spacey and distracted. She used to spend this time being reflexively bitchy, but that had changed.

Since the whole SQUIP thing went down a few months ago, Chloe’s life had changed a lot.

Primarily, she was trying not to be a heinous bitch so much of the time. Since they got their minds controlled, Brooke had disclosed to her that it was hard for Brooke to deal with being second best all the time, and that she needed Chloe to prioritise their friendship sometimes. Chloe didn’t really say it, but she had always hated the way she treated Brooke as well, so it was easy to work harder for her.

Then, there was Michael Mell - massive nerd and one of Chloe’s dearest friends. Everybody who was SQUIPed had sort of melded onto each other since the incident, and with them (more specifically with Jeremy and Christine) came Michael.

He had had the good sense to say no to SQUIP, and as a result was the only person Chloe really spoke to at school that didn’t constantly talk about them. Much as she enjoyed having people to talk to about all the fucked-up thoughts that still lingered in her head, it was nice to have a friend you hadn’t briefly shared a hive mind with.

She and Michael had a unique relationship, wherein both talked shit about each other to the other’s face. The fact that he was her second best friend and vice versa seemed a little off to everybody at first, but it was easy to see how close they now were. Nothing was off the table with the pair, and it made the friendship the least complicated relationship she had ever been in.

Lastly, she had come to terms with something that she had been avoiding for perhaps even longer than her anime obsession - being gay.

Chloe had never really thought about her sexuality, because she had assumed she liked guys. Of course, her lack of affection towards them had given her pause, but that was easily remedied by telling herself that she was just not a romantic. Dating Jake had been easy because he didn’t want anything more than the physical, and Chloe didn’t mind that so much. But after everything with Jeremy, Chloe had realised that she wasn’t actually into him - or Jake - at all. With that came a pretty intense couple weeks of introspection, resulting in the revelation that had, in hindsight, been obvious the entire time.

Chloe was a lesbian.

This was where Michael had come in particularly handy, and where their relationship had really blossomed. He was as out as a teenage boy gets, and perfectly happy that way. He was very willing to talk her through compulsive heterosexuality and how she had the option not to label herself or to identify as any number of other sexualities. However, in the end, Chloe knew that she had never been attracted to or romantically interested in dudes, and that was fine by her. She had also been lucky enough to be accepted when she came out, holding Michael’s hand for support the entire time.

As the girl onscreen stood atop her beaten-down foe, Chloe cheered and fell back onto the skyscraper of pillows behind her, noon light directly in her eyes. The credits played as she stared up at her ceiling, which was particularly noticeable. Glued to the ceiling were hundreds of small mirrors, arranged in a honeycomb pattern and slightly tilted in order to create a kaleidoscope from a normal room. Brooke said that it made her seasick whenever she came over, but Chloe was still pretty into it. Of all of her questionable thirteen-year-old decisions, this was the one she was happiest about.

There was a knock at the door. “Come in,” she called, sitting up and slamming her laptop shut. In came Michael, who had developed the disturbing habit of barging into his friends’ houses thanks to the fact that Jeremy had apparently never explained to him what boundaries were.

“Sup, motherfucker,” he greeted her, immediately flopping down half on her bed and half on the floor. He was wearing what was apparently his only hoodie, and had clearly just woken up due to his rampant bedhead. She ruffled his dark hair and moved to lie right by him.

“Why are you here, Mell?” He shot her a shit-eating grin and replied,

“The pleasure of your company, of course. JK, Jere and Chris are off doing their nerdy theatre thing this fine Saturday, so I needed a backup plan. I checked Find My Friends and it told me you were here. Why are you here?”

“I live here, genius,” she replied while flicking his ear.

“Ow!”

“But if you’re asking why I’m not out, I needed some me time.” He looked at her suspiciously. “And Jenna took Brooke to Philly for a concert this morning.”

“Ah, that explains it. You not into it?” She shook her head.

“Not my scene - I hate concerts. It’s just loud, bad music and a bunch of screaming, sweaty people. Who wants to be a part of that?” He nodded, face serious.

“I fuckin’ hate concerts too. Luckily so does Jeremy, so I’ve never had the whole ‘got abandoned for music’ thing. I don’t think he’s really into music, not since the SQUIP killed Eminem.”

“What in the fresh hell?” He waved his hand dismissively.

“Forget about it. Who they goin’ to see anyway?”

“I don’t care. Sorry, bitch mode. I think Jenna said it was some alternative band, and you know I refuse to listen to anything that didn’t make the top 40.” Michael laughed, shaking his head.

“You are such a local, Chlo.” She gasped, clutching her chest like a grandma watching her child grind.

“You take that back, you, you - you hipster nerd,” she hissed. His jaw dropped, and he stood up and began pacing. His brow was furrowed in concentration, and he stammered out his next sentence.

“I am just so, s-so unbelievably, unabashedly... proud of you, Chloe Valentine. You perfect, heaven-sent angel of a human being. You are all that is right in this world, you are the feeling you get when you finish a level first try. You are the middle slice of a square pizza.” She was confused at exactly what he meant, but it seemed positive.

“What?”

“I have taught you all that I have to offer. From here on out, I will become your apprentice, slaving by your side to earn your approval. I pledge allegiance to the flag of Chloe Valentine.” He knelt down before her, fake-worshipping her. She chuckled, swinging her legs around to find the carpet.

“What the fuck are you doing, Mell?”

“Even Jere, who has been my pupil for almost thirteen years, pales in comparison. You hit the nail on the damn head without trying. Hang on,” he remarked, getting his phone out of his pocket and unlocking it as he sat down beside her. She made a note of his passcode for later reference.

He opened his messages and went to Jeremy’s contact (Soft Boi). The previous conversation appeared to be about the Bee Movie - about which, Jeremy was apparently very passionate. The boy sent his friend a couple of messages.

_you have been dethroned_

__

__

_chloe is now my best friend and number 1 in my speed dial and you have been demoted to 3, below the night cashier at sev-elev_

He leaned in towards her for a picture, and her selfie instincts kicked in as she angled her head and the shot and pouted attractively. Michael sent the picture and locked his phone.

“Well, that was difficult but necessary. What d’you wanna do now?” Chloe paused, considering the three new episodes she had queued up to watch that day in anticipation of the season finale tomorrow. Still, she had that pride skirt she hadn’t worn out yet, plus with Michael slushes and fro-yo were always very much on the table.

“Let’s hang out, away from my house.”

“Kay.”

 

Fifteen minutes later, in a white blouse, a millennial pink bomber and matching boots, and her multi-pink lesbian pride skirt, Chloe stepped outside. Michael followed her, closing the door behind him. He was, as always, wearing his red hoodie (despite the eighty degree heat) jeans and white sneakers. Still, the hoodie was pretty sweet - she wouldn’t take it off much if she didn’t have to.

“So,” she asked, climbing into the passenger seat of the Cruiser that had been affectionately dubbed Doctor Shitheap, “we going to Seven-Eleven?” Michael checked his mirrors and pulled out of the driveway.

“Yup, then the Pinkberry next door - the ushe.” She cringed, but he seemed blissfully unaware. “Hey, plug this in and press play,” he asked, handing her his phone. She did so, and as she listened to the opening bars, a song in an unfamiliar language started up. To her sunrise, Michael was singing along quite happily as they drove through the New Jersey suburbs.

“Ok lang baby wag kang magbago,” he hummed in time with the tune. Michael was a surprisingly good singer when he didn’t care who heard him.

“You understand this?” He nodded absentmindedly.

“It’s in Tagalog - my ma’s Filipino. And my mom lived there for a while; it’s actually how they met. Didn’t you know I’m bilingual?” She shook her head in amazement.

“That’s so weird. I can’t believe I never knew that. What’s the song?” He grinned.

“Not exactly Top 40s, is it? Rhetorical. It’s Antukin by Rico Blanco - I dig the guy. Usually I’m very techno, very eighties, but the guy’s good.” She had to agree, despite not really knowing his work. The song was fun, if a little sad. Maybe Brooke was right about music being a universal language.

Michael parked the car right outside the Seven-Eleven, and the two entered.

“Mikey!” The cashier called out, and Michael gave him a complicated handshake.

“Hey Jack, how’s tricks?” The pair continued their conversation as Chloe wandered over to the slushy machine to decide her flavour. She noticed a display of Swedish candy, and grabbed a couple of promising bags for Brooke. That girl was really into foreign candy of all kinds.

“Hi, I’ll have a blue slushy and these, thanks,” she said to the cashier as she got out her wallet. Michael was staring intently at his phone, so Jack just grabbed his usual rainbow of every slushy from the machine and handed it to the guy.

“There you go, man.” Chloe noticed that Michael was texting Jeremy again. Jeremy had replied to the selfie with one of him sticking his tongue out and Christine smiling cutely, then texted:

_2 can play @ this game bruh_

__

__

_Chris says hi_

To which Michael replied:

_i say hi back_

__

__

_& fuckawf you fuckin furry i can kick yo ass in any game, any time_

“Michael!” Chloe snapped at him. He looked up guiltily. “You can text your boyfriend later. I paid for this round, you owe me Pinkberry.”

“Jeremy and I aren’t together.”

“Who cares? I want fro-yo.” He rolled his eyes and led her out of the door.

In Pinkberry, she ordered her usual - pink lemonade and passionfruit with kiwi pieces. Michael laughed at this, shaking his head.

“Oh my God, Valentine. This is dessert, you aren’t supposed to order a fruit salad!” She scowled, replying,

“I like fruit! Brooke wouldn’t give me this shit, Mell.” She grabbed a spoon and started nibbling the kiwi.

“Whatever.” He proceeded to construct a monstrosity of sugar that included, but was not limited to cinnamon churro and peanut butter yogurt, brownie bites, gummy bears, and fruity pebbles. “Now this is a dessert.”

“That is diabetes in a paper cup. Let’s go, Br- Michael.” Pushing the door open, he laughed,

“Did you just call me Brooke? That is too damn adorable! I’m telling her you did that when she gets back, you know?” Chloe facepalmed, groaning as they walked back to the car.

“It was force of habit. Pinkberry’s usually mine and Brooke’s thing, I just wasn’t used to it.” She thought about how many times she and Brooke went into that store - at least twice a week for the past two years. She was so used to Brooke’s face lighting up at the sight of the sign after a long day, of her excitedly hurrying into the store, the sleeves of her cardigan wrapped around her cup so her fingers wouldn’t get cold. That cardigan saw about as much use as Michael’s hoodie every year, and Brooke was just as stubborn about it as he was. She’d even taken it with her to Philly, despite warm and sunny forecasts for the whole weekend. Chloe smiled to herself at the memory. Jenna was the kind of person who took one outfit for the week, and simply restyled it as necessary; Brooke was the kind of person who took three emergency outfits per day in addition to sunglasses, an umbrella, and a bobble hat. Chloe loved that about her.

Chloe loved a lot of things about Brooke.

Actually, she couldn’t think of anything about Brooke that she didn’t love. Even her dumb choices in phone backgrounds were endearing. Chloe liked the abstract patterns she used, but her heart gave an extra beat whenever she noticed the selfie from their Disneyland trip on Brooke’s locked phone.

Chloe loved everything about Brooke. Chloe loved-

_Huh._

 


	2. Educated Guess

Michael pulled up at the skate park, and the pair got out. He dumped his empty cups in the trash, noticing that Chloe had barely touched hers. This was a girl who loved fro-yo possibly more than she loved her own mother, and she was pushing around her berries like they were poisoned. He dropped down onto the very end of an empty bench, giving her space if she wanted it. She sat down so close to him they were touching shoulders.

“You okay, Valentine?” She was staring absently at two seagulls fighting in the air over half a pretzel, not even Snapchatting it. Something was definitely wrong. He waved a hand in front of her face, and she snapped back to him.

“Yeah?”

“We’re bros, Chlo. You can be honest with me. What’s up?” She looked like he had just told her to lick the concrete.

“Nothing! Why would you think something’s up? Nothing’s up! Why would you think that?”

“Okay,” he drawled, “am I high or did you just say the same two things twice?”

“Bit of both, I expect. Disgusting habit, Michael. It’ll kill you.” He laughed, glad she was still up for a good holier-than-thou speech.

“You only say that because the one time you tried a puff of weed, you choked so hard that Brooke had to Heimlich you.” Her eyes zapped to his, and her expression was deliberately chill, something that he intimately recognised. He wasn’t sure what had set her off, but there was shit in the water and it was his job to figure out why. Unfortunately at that moment, his phone buzzed repeatedly in his pocket, urgently alerting him to someone calling. He only knew two peoplewho still used their phones as phones, and they were both at a series of off-Broadway shows together this weekend, so he picked up. As he did so, Chloe took the chance to escape, rushing over to greet Dustin Kropt, who was miserably failing to roller skate on a simple ramp.

It was Jeremy, and Michael answered with their traditional,

“Why are you calling me you fuckin’ weirdo? Your phone has a text service why would you call me and give me a mini heart attack?” Jeremy promptly ignored this, as always, and replied,

_“Hey Mica, how’s tricks?”_

“Pretty damn funky, white boy. But Chloe’s being kinda weird all of a sudden. Acting real skittish, being randomly spacey. I like the angry lesbian, but I don’t understand the angry lesbian.” He glanced over to see her schooling Dustin’s ass at roller skating, and felt a rush of pride as she gave him the finger while skating away on his own skates. Jeremy was apparently on a busy street, and Michael heard yelling and cursing in the background - a lot of it Christine.

_“I will never get how you guys are friends. It just doesn’t make sense.”_

“Eh, I’m a go with the flow kinda guy, and the flow brought me to Chloe. The kid’s alright when you crack through the wall of fury and lipgloss.”

 _“Well, I’m gonna leave drilling through Chloe’s walls to you, buddy. Ew - just thought about how that sounded.”_  The boy sounded like he might vomit. Michael laughed.

“You disgust me, Jeremy. I will see you back at your house Sunday evening for movie night.” The cursing on the other end of the line became louder and more profound, and Michael laughed harder. “Hey Chris!” He yelled into the phone. The string of profanity came to an end as Christine replied in her sweet voice,

_“Hiya Mikey! We’re having such an amazing time at these shows, I wish you’d come.”_

“Eh, I’ll leave the whole theatre thing to you two. I’m already as gay as I can be, I dread to think what would happen if I got into musicals.” She giggled sweetly, and he could practically hear her dimples as she replied,

 _“You are so silly, Mikey. Still, these people are so - oh, you want some, ya sack of limp cocks? I’ll shove your hand so far down your throat you’ll be able to tickle your own pissy little ballsack! - talented, I just love the atmosphere, you know? Sorry if you heard that, BTW, some builders are being jerks and getting all hoity-toity.”_  That girl was like Jekyll and Hyde, and it was the best. He grinned.

“Every day I thank not only God but Jesus that you are in my life, Christine Canigula. Show ‘em who’s boss. How many shows you guys got left?”

_“Jere was bugging me, so now you’re on speaker. And it’s four- one in forty minutes, one tonight, and then two tomorrow before we get the train back late in the evening. God, I’m so happy. I wish I could live in this weekend forever.”_

_“Yeah, me too,”_ Jeremy agreed. _“Not that I hate your company, dog, but we’ve been working since February to afford this trip and I have to say, it’s worth it. I’m learning so much about the industry and we get to scream at all these new, awesome shows that are off-Broadway.”_  Michael glanced up, scanning for the girl in the pink. Chloe was sat on the edge of one of the pools, wistfully watching others skate. Michael stood up, walking over to her.

“Well,” he said into the phone, “you kids have fun. And try to explore the city a little while you’re there. And remember to take lots of pictures. I need evidence you enjoyed yourselves.”

 _“Yay,”_ Jeremy deadpanned, _“mandatory fun. The best kind.”_

“Jeremy,” he replied, “light of my life; my player two, the Luigi to my Mario, the cheese to my cake: shut the fuck up.” He grinned at Christine’s laughter, then hung up. He reached Chloe, and sat down beside her, legs crossed.

“Hey. How’s Jeremy?” She asked.

“Fine. How did you know it was him?” She gave him a weird sort of sad look, almost as if she was disappointed, but brushed it off.

“Educated guess.” They sat in silence for a moment, watching the skaters riding in and out of the pool.

“Is there something wrong? I’m asking because I care, and because I’m worried. Not cause I want to use it against you.” Once you knew her, it turned out that Chloe didn’t understand why you would share personal information. She had never known that there were people who didn’t use details about your crappy life as blackmail or leverage. He didn’t ask about her home life much, but he ocertainly had questions.

“I don’t think so. I just figured something out, I guess. It’s kinda a big deal - too big to just tell you, if you catch my drift. I’m sure you have the same.” He considered for a moment. He made a daily concerned effort to ‘live his best life’ by not letting the typical teen angst shit have any weight over him. That meant no self-loathing, no drama with other people, no keeping stuff bottled up, and no secrets too big to tell anyone. If it was something he couldn’t tell Chloe or Jeremy, he would tell Christine - that girl was a vault. Failing that, he told his moms. He trusted them with any and everything, even if it might upset them.

Still, he could understand the idea of a secret too big to disclose at all, and so he tried to be sympathetic.

“Yeah, I get it. I mean, not get it get it, but I get it enough. You don’t have to tell me, but I think it would help you. I won’t tell anyone - not Jere, not Chris. Not even my moms. I mean, maybe I would hint about it to Ma, but not a word to Mom. You know my Ma; she’ll take it to her grave.” Chloe was quiet, refusing to look at him.

“Can I ask a question? You have toanswer it honestly. Then, I’ll tell you.” He smiled softly, raising her head to meet his gaze.

“Go ahead. We’re bros, Chloe. You can trust me with your life.” She looked away, gazing at a girl doing flips on her scooter for a moment. The breeze ruffled her hair, moving it just out of her face and lifting it into an almost-halo. She pulled her jacket tighter around her as a cloud fell over the park, chilling the warm day momentarily. Chloe breathed in deeply, closing her eyes for a moment. Then she looked back at him, directly in his eyes, and leant in close.

“Do you have feelings for Jeremy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha! Cliffhanger!   
> Can you tell that I love Christine Canigula with all my little heart? Bc I do. I also insist that she has an absolutely amazing dark side that comes out in traffic and when she’s in charge of play rehearsal.   
> This is semi-in honour of BMC closing off-Broadway.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any suggestions for what animes Chloe watches, leave them in the comments!  
> Thanks for reading.


End file.
